Is Biden done? Debate performance hard to watch – tells voters to turn record players on at night

Former Vice President Joe Biden has managed to simultaneously be roasted and praised for his performance at the Democratic debate in Houston.

While some supporters believed the 2020 presidential hopeful came out winning Thursday after spending much of the night defending himself from his rivals, many saw Biden’s sometimes incoherent moments in the Democrats’ third presidential debate simply as a disaster.

The 76-year-old did little to ease the concerns of Democrats who have watched his gaffe-filled campaign, as he dodged questions, confused viewers with his sometimes rambling answers, and dealt with former Housing Secretary Julián Castro’s repeated attacks on his age.

On the question of segregation and race in schools, Biden offered a confusing response that set off a social media meltdown.

“What responsibility do you think that Americans need to take to repair the legacy of slavery in our country?” he was asked.

His reply included an acknowledgment of “institutional segregation” while proposing tripling the amount of federal money to “poor schools” while making sure that “we bring in to help the teachers deal with the problems that come from home.”

“Social workers help parents deal with how to raise their children. It’s not that they don’t want to help, they don’t know quite what to do,” he said.

“Play the radio, make sure that the television- excuse me,” Biden continued, “make sure you have the record player on at night. Make sure that kids hear words. A kid coming from a very poor school- poor background, will hear four million words spoken by the time they get there.”

Though it wasn’t the attention Biden needed to be getting for his debate performance, the strange remark was not the only one.

His eyebrow-raising comment that “nonviolent” criminals should not be jailed also drew immediate reactions on social media and needed to be walked back by his team later.

“The fact of the matter is that what’s happened is that we’re in a situation now where there are so many people who are in jail and shouldn’t be in jail. The whole means by which this should change is toll — the model has to change. Nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime,” Biden said.

Though the Democrat has proposed eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes, it seems his comment was too progressive to be true.

But for all the mockery he received, Biden still found many to come to his defense after what they saw as a cheap shot by Castro.

“Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?” Castro asked during a question on healthcare, appearing to take a jab at Biden’s memory and age which drew boos from the audience. “Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? I can’t believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in and now you’re saying they don’t have to buy in. You’re forgetting that.”

Bernie Sanders on Julián Castro’s attack on Joe Biden’s memory: “I will disagree with Joe on our record and our vision for the future. I am not going to go after him personally, that’s not right.” pic.twitter.com/hTnEzGq4oS

But in the end, Biden still seemed to be holding on to his front-runner position, even as his critics – and opponents – wonder if he has got what it takes to get to the nomination in one piece.

“There are moments where you listen to Joe Biden and you just wonder. I don’t know,” Sen. Cory Booker told CNN’s Erin Burnett in a post-debate interview.

“I’ve listened to Joe Biden over the years and often felt like there were times that he is going on or meandering in his speech. Look, I want someone that can exit and can energize like we saw in ’08 and ’12. If I believed Joe Biden was that person, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”